VISUAL ACTIVITYWomen and the Church: Jemima Wilkinson In this engraving, Jemima Wilkinson, “the Publick Universal Friend,” wears a clerical collar and body-obscuring robe, much as a male minister would wear, in keeping with the claim that the former Jemima was now a person without gender. Wilkinson’s hair is swept back from the forehead and curled at the neck in the style of men’s powdered wigs of the 1790s.READING THE IMAGE: Was Wilkinson merely masculinized by dress and deportment, or did the “Universal Friend” truly transcend gender?CONNECTIONS: Why was it so difficult for women to attain religious authority in the early Republic? What allowed a few to rise above social limitations?

History and Directory of Yates County by Stafford C. Cleveland, 1873.